Sunday, 27 April 2014

Lying Differently

Many years
ago, in a time now glorified as a bitter sweet past by shows like Life On Mars
and its sequel Ashes to Ashes, the UK police were accused of telling the most
horrendous and life changing lies.

Not just
fibs or half truths but actual bona fide lies. Huge stinking whoppers that
would land people in prison for decades or result in bent coppers getting away
with the most awful behaviour.

A TV show
called Rough Justice highlighted some of these cases and one that sticks in my
mind was a homeless bum who came forward to say “that knife used in that murder
was mine, it was stolen about 6 weeks ago.” He ended up getting charged,
convicted and sent to prison for that murder even though the ONLY thing linking
him to it was the knife. He had alibis for the night the killing occurred and
other evidence such as the state of his clothing and there being none of his
DNA at the scene…were conveniently ignored. The implication with this example
was that the police had a loose end to tie off and as he was a vagrant and it
would make them look good by solving the case, then why not just pin it on him?

Other
stories did the rounds, such as uncooperative prisoners being pushed in a cell
at the local police station on a Friday afternoon and not attended to again
until the following Monday. CID detectives used to work Monday to Friday so
someone locked in a cell for over 60 hours would more than likely be ready to
have a much more compliant chat than beforehand. Further urban legends existed
of those prisoners not even getting food for that time if they pissed the
jailer off.

Aggressive
interviewing techniques would and could be used. This could be simply calling
someone a liar or raising your voice or at the worst end of the spectrum,
actually assaulting a prisoner. Implication being, “sign this statement that we
wrote, that says you did it and we can all get some shut eye.”

So, slowly
people began to grab the bullshitters by the horns and over a period of many years, things changed.

The complex
minefield that is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) was brought in to
try and rectify some of this behaviour (real or legend) from unscrupulous
detectives or even senior officers. Originally it was simply Judge’s Rules
which was a tiny document and could be said out loud in less than a couple of
minutes. PACE is a Harry Potter-sized tome of a book that gives prisoners,
interviewees and suspects very detailed and complex rights that CANNOT be taken
away. In an age of CCTV, internet and Twitter it’s very hard to lie
successfully about something you didn’t do that you should have done.

PACE was the
new child of a new generation of policing and was like building a rose garden
over a sewage farm.

Problem was,
with the bad cops banished the good cops had to do their jobs VERY carefully
and with the utmost professionalism to ensure a watertight, stone bonker of a
case. They needed more time because they had to do more paperwork. EVERYTHING
had to be accounted for, from prisoners’ property to how much force was used
(or lack of) on an arrest. What officers said was written down and had to be
accounted for. Whether the Caution upon arrest was worded correctly could and
has been a bone of contention for many cases**

With their
entire operational lives now under microscopic scrutiny, the police were like
the bobbies from an Enid Blyton book. Officers who did their jobs
professionally, with accountability and without questioning the utter necessity
of such an approach. This was a pain in the arse for everyone on the right side
of a truncheon…but bearable provided the system supported the new regime.

Then the system began to fall apart.

By 2010 it
became an internal regulation in ALL English forces that any and all
innapopriate behaviour that was committed by officers or police staff while on
duty MUST be reported by the person witnessing it. Failure to do so could and
has resulted in sanctions, suspension and even dismissal of officers who heard
someone say something or do something, but kept quiet. This rule is bad enough
but you can be in trouble for a remark said to person B, even if you didn’t know
person C*** was hiding behind the door deliberately eavesdropping. It’s if
anyone present is offended (or pretends to be). Your intention in making a
comment is immaterial.

This was
presumably meant to combat the closed shop culture and of illegal or unethical
activities being allowed to continue unchallenged in the workplace. Problem was
that now cops can’t trust each other. An American Sheriff’s deputy that I know
from Texas said that he finds this rule crazy. He said he would gladly rat out
a fellow officer for stealing evidence, beating suspects of fabricating
evidence but can’t understand why UK cops are obliged to “tell” on each other
for someone cracking a sexist joke.

Race and
Diversity training in the English & Welsh police now takes up a staggering
amount of training and retraining for fledgling cops. As an example: When I was
in the police the annual training was 4 hours baton usage, 1 hour the pepper
spray (classed as a firearm in the UK) and 6 BASTARD WEEKS on Race and
Diversity.

Resources
since 2011 have been stretched to the breaking point of value brand bog paper.
The Tory/ Lib Dem Coalition slashed at least 20% off police budgets, meaning the
43 forces from Kent to the Scottish borders had to fire, retire, and make
redundant a staggering amount of officers****

The Forces themselves
and the Government would lie and say that nothing had changed and “frontline
policing will not be affected” but the following examples, just from my own experiences,
show that the UK police are now lying differently.

1). In the
town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire, a town I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s,
there is an annual horse fair. It happens in a big field near the A46
roundabout that leads to Coventry, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. Every year
about 4000 travellers descend upon Kenilworth and the town suffers as a direct
result. I’ve had first hand accounts from people who live in Kenilworth of
theft, burglary, intimidation, criminal damage and flagrant & gleeful
disregard for basic compliance with common social norms. A woman I know worked
in the now defunct Rocking Horse cafe on Station Road. 1st day travllers came n
and the food was apparently poisoned (quote “Oh my God! I feel sick! You poisoned
my food!”). Money back. 2nd day the food was too long being prepared and an
urgent meeting was about to happen (Leans into her personal space across the
counter and says slowly “NO! You HAVE to give me my money back sweetheart!!!”).
Money back. 3rd day they were eating for free (manager refused to close in case
he lost even more money).

Another is
that Sainsbury’s, a supermarket only below Waitrose and Marks & Spencer for
clientele, have to employ bouncers on the doors the entire time the horse fair
is in town. Reason? Travellers come in, fill up a shopping trolley and then
just walk out. The bouncers are huge, hulking blokes clearly hired from “Gorillas
R Us” that are able to handle themselves and won’t shy away from a bit of fisticuffs.
The same type of security is also in place at both the Jet and Shell petrol
stations on Warwick Road. Reason? Travellers on the first horse fair would pull
in, fill up the petrol tank…and then fuck off without paying. Now there’s a
rule of “No transit vans and you pay before you fill up.” The bouncers are
there to enforce this.

The police
every year will react to the sudden increase in crime by treating the whole
thing as if it’s forty unrelated incidents that just happened to happen
spontaneously. With a mixture of Race
& Diversity training, fear of being caught out as intolerant/ racist/
something-ist, and woefully thin resources*****…the cops will deal as best they
can and then smile like nothing’s happened that isn’t under control. They don’t
want to “look bad” and they don’t want to scare the public so they lie. Not the
lies of yesterdecade, but lies that everything is ok. That everything isn’t
quite as bad as the moaning minnies would have you believe. Last year I cycled
to Kenilworth on the Sunday of the horse fair and 5 double crewed police cars
were parked up on Warwick Road, one of which had an Inspector in it. I spoke to
his Sergeant briefly who replied with a Stepford Wives smile, “As you can see
Sir, everything’s peaceful” while waving his hand to the area around us.
Problem is that for the equivalent of an entire Section (police group
responsible for a specific zone of a Force’s area) plus a Governor to be out like
that…this was clearly a warning to the travellers to behave.

2). About 2
years ago I had an argument with the manager of a restaurant I live near. He
lost his temper during what was a fairly heated, but only verbal row, and began
swinging his fists before the chefs jumped in between us. Attempts to subdue him
were at first unsuccessful as he came back hurling a tea cup at my head (missed
and shattered on the wall) screeching “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!” I called the
police and used the words “I believe my life is in immediate danger” (it helps
to have been a cop as you know what terminology to use). Within 2 minutes a
double crewed~~ police car arrived with one officer wearing a stun
gun. This is called in IR or Incident Resolution crew, a very rare and treasured
unit to have on patrol. There are probably 4 or 5 at any one time for the
ENTIRE COUNTY of Warwickshire.

True to
form, the male officer took the manger to one side for a “chat” and the female
with the tazer spoke to me. They then compared notes and the lady cop said that
he’d admitted he’d started it by throwing the first punch. I asked if they were
going to nick him. She replied “Do you want me to?” I said “No, if we can shake
hands on it then we can move on and forget about it.”

Her partner
then came back with the manager, not knowing the conversation his buddy had had
with me and said in a passable school teacher impersonation, “Are you two
willing to shake hands on this, because we’ve got enough evidence to bring you
both in.”

His partner
glanced quickly at him but managed to almost retain a poker face. Me
and the manager shook hands and said sorry and he went on his way. I then
turned to the male cop.

“Can I talk
to you for a second?”

“Of course”
(smiling)

“Why did you
say you had enough to bring us both in?”

(Stun gun
lady cop is still poker faced but her eyes are darting rapidly between us).

“He’s claiming
pre-emptive strike. Says he thought you were going to hit him.”

“He was in
the back yard of his restaurant and I was in the alley, I’m not that bloke out
the Fantastic Four.”

(Shrugging
and smiling). “Well that’s what he said.”

“Your
partner here said that he had admitted he’d started it after comparing notes
with you.”

(Looks
worried for a milli-second then says) “Err, no that’s not right.”

“OK look, I’m
ex police. Is this still your reason?”

(Looking
uncomfortable) “Yes.”

Bottom line
was. Shit job. No injuries. Strictly speaking we should nick immediately as the
manager has admitted an assault. However this will take at least 3 hours to
process and will only result in a Caution. A double crewed IR unit have better
things deal with than this. Get them to forget it and move on and we can be out
on the streets backing up our woefully undermanned Section with some incidents
that might genuinely require a tazer.

Basically he
lied because he felt it was justified. I saw through it and can forgive his fibbing
as I can totally understand why he did it. Problem is…cops used to lie, so we
changed things to stop them.

They still
lie, but now it’s out of necessity to get their jobs done.

-------------------------------

** When I took the Definitions exam in police training I wrote "that you later rely on in court" instead of "which you later rely on." That one word bumped my score down to 74%, pass mark being 75...meaning I had to resit the bastard thing.

*** C Word being more appropriate.

**** Apart from the Race & Diversity departments. As I write this, that useless fat bitch Denise Milani is still faffing about making people's lives a misery in the Met police.

***** Core Section (main amount) of officer on Response patrol for Warwick, Leamington Spa and Kenilworth is apparently between 6 and 10 (thats 6 to 10 for all THREE not each), depending on sickness, holidays and training renewal days. They also closed Kenilworth police station 2 years ago, meaning the nearest one is 5 miles away.

~~ Two officers in the car. This should be fundamental but many Forces send single crewed cops to domestic violence calls, pub fights and shoplifting arrests. Usually results in cop backing off (as UK cops are 99% unarmed) and waiting for backup anyway.